Vision Australia is cutting 130 jobs across the nation as the global recession starts to cut into charity donations.
The not-for-profit organisation, which provides services to the blind and vision-impaired, says jobs will be lost from across its operations in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
Other staff will have working hours cut and three vision centres at Bairnsdale, Horsham and Swan Hill in regional Victoria will close.
Vision Australia chief executive officer Gerard Menses said there had been a $13 million reduction in the organisation's income over the past six months, reducing its bottom line 17 per cent this financial year.
"Vision Australia relies on the Australian donor and corporate community, as well as our own investments, for the vast majority of our revenue, with just 28 per cent of our income coming from government sources," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Seventy per cent of our expenditure is on staff salaries and despite many other cost-saving initiatives we must reduce the number of staff and rationalise our overheads in order to protect our delivery of services to people with blindness or low vision."
Mr Menses said the job cuts would likely see the organisation through the downturn.
"This is a one-off occurrence which will see us through the next three to five years unless there are further and significant downward changes in the economy which we don't anticipate," he said.
"We see no need for further action if we remain strong and stable."
Mr Menses said services would still be offered at outreach centre in regional Victoria and all staff entitlements would be honoured in full.
He said the organisation implemented a savings strategy last November which reduced travel expenses, froze senior management wages and cut one third of executive staff.
An estimated 600,000 Australians will need support for blindness or low vision by 2020, he said.
AAP
